Animal Farm Theme of Cunning and Cleverness

At the very beginning of Animal Farm, it is easy to laugh at Squealer’s professed ability to "turn black into white" (2.2). Yet as time goes on, it becomes clear that Squealer’s cleverness can be used in very harmful ways. The pigs take advantage of the other animals’ lack of intelligence, and gradually brainwash, deceive, distract, and dupe them into a life of hardship and toil as short and miserable as their life before the Rebellion.

1. One of the coolest things about Animal Farm, besides the talking pigs, is the fact that we know all these things the animals don't. Our knowledge as a reader puts us in a position to analyze the text. This is generally how parables work. It’s easy to see how the pigs are taking advantage of the other animals, but perhaps there are also things going on in the real world, in our own big Animal Farm, that we might not be recognizing?
2. The animals are really concerned about controlling the image of their farm in the outside world. Is this the same kind of manipulation that the pigs perform within the farm? Are the working class animals then also responsible, in some ways, for the attempted deception of the outside world?
3. What is the single most important thing the working animals could recognize that would stop them from being oppressed?

Of all the tools the pigs have with which to oppress the other animals, their own intellect is their greatest means of control.

The hierarchy of intelligence in the animals on the farm ultimately becomes the hierarchy of power – except for Snowball, who is ousted by violence. Orwell shows that, in the end, brute force is more important than intellect.